By Katy Murphy, Bay Area News Group
SACRAMENTO — Responding to pleas from 11 big-city mayors grappling with the alarming rise of homelessness, California lawmakers on Wednesday separately announced two proposals that would devote over half of the state’s $6.1 billion budget surplus to the crisis.
A bipartisan bill from Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, and backed by Republican Assemblyman Brian Maienschein, of San Diego, calls for a one-time infusion of $1.5 billion in matching funds for cities, generating a total of $3 billion for programs to house the homeless.
Another proposal would direct $2 billion of the coming year’s budget to cities and counties for affordable housing: Senate Bill 912 from Sen. Jim Beall, D-Campbell, and Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley. The two lawmakers also support Ting’s bill.
“We’re hearing loud and clear that this is really the most important issue for cities up and down the state,” said Ting, who heads the Assembly Budget Committee.
California’s homeless population has swelled to 134,000. Roughly one in every four of the nation’s homeless lives in California. As rents and evictions have skyrocketed in recent years, tent cities have grown in number and size, creating widespread humanitarian and public health concerns.
San Diego was struck by a deadly Hepatitis A outbreak in its homeless encampments last fall that killed 20 people, according to the California Department of Public Health. Los Angeles, Monterey and Santa Cruz also have had cases, including one death in Santa Cruz.
“Homelessness is not just an issue. It is the most pressing issue facing California cities today,” said San Diego Mayor Kevin L. Faulconer, a prominent Republican, in an announcement about AB 3171.
Early this month, mayors from Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Fresno, Bakersfield, Long Beach, Oakland, Anaheim, and Santa Ana sent a letter to Assembly and Senate leadership, asking for help.
Lawmakers responded quickly. Last week, San Francisco Assemblyman David Chiu and other Democrats sent a letter to the Assembly Budget Committee asking that $2 billion of the surplus be spent on the crisis. And on Wednesday, lawmakers unveiled two bills with similar goals.
Ting called the legislative efforts “complimentary” in an interview Wednesday. He would not say how much of the state’s surplus, currently estimated to be $6.1 billion, he would support spending on the issue. Such decisions will be hashed out over the coming months, he said, between his committee, Senate budget leaders and the governor.
The state deadline for approving a budget is June 15. Gov. Jerry Brown, who has the authority to veto individual expenditures in the deal, has been pushing for the state to save most of the surplus.
Because the aid would be a one-time infusion of dollars, cities would likely spend much of it on construction. San Jose could use it to construct housing developments for the homeless and to expand existing programs to build tiny houses and to convert crumbling old hotels into apartments, said Mayor Sam Liccardo.
“It’s a happy day when others are willing to join the choir,” said Liccardo in an interview Wednesday, “but of course we’re all jumping in because of the critical scale of this problem facing California.”
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf was among the mayors calling for more help from the state. “As one of the wealthiest and most innovative places in the world,” she said, “California can and must do better.”
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